The North Korean Spy Who Loved Me

North Korean spies are winning the hearts of South Korean women–on the movie screen.

“Secretly Greatly,” a new South Korean action-comedy film, premiered in North America for the first time at the New York Asian Film Festival on July 11. Based on a popular webcomic “Covertness,” the film depicts three young North Korean spies who are on a secret mission—to act as a village fool, a rocker wannabe, and a high school student in an impoverished part of Seoul.

Despite the inglorious, and rather comedic, nature of their spy activities—for example, one is ordered to urinate on the street publicly once a month while the other repeatedly gets rejected at rock band auditions—the star-studded cast, including the enormously popular male actor Kim Soo-hyun, has turned these buffoon-like characters into an unlikely trio of heartthrobs. “In Korea, female audiences would actually scream when the male actor showed off his abs and stuff,” the director Jang Cheol-soo said through a translator during his Q&A session. “So male audiences had trouble watching the film.”

The action-thriller “Shiri” (1999), one of the first big-budget blockbuster films to directly address the issue of the division of the country, involved a romance between a sexy North Korean superspy-sniper and a South Korean intelligence agent. Spy thrillers since then have gotten more personal–”Secret Reunion” (2010) featured the unlikely bond between a South Korean agent and a North Korean spy, and “Double Agent” (2002) and “The Berlin File” (2013) each featured the inner struggles of a North Korean spy. Movie audiences have seen again and again how North and South Koreans, who are initially pointing their guns at each other, become emotionally entangled and struggle with a divided sense of loyalty.

“The perspective towards North Korean spies has changed throughout the years,” Jang said during the Q&A session. “The need for new perspective for those spies has been more desperate and necessary.”

In such movies as “The Spy” (2012) as well as “Secretly, Greatly” (2013), we see North Korean spies being assimilated into ordinary South Korean life, even to the point of forgetting why they came to South Korea in the first place.

The dashing musketeer trio from “Secretly, Greatly” are portrayed more as objects of pity suffering from the consequences of the Korean War than any possible source of threat.

“I wanted to portray them not as just a tool or a device for political scheme but rather highlight the humane aspects of them,” Jang said in an exclusive interview with Speakeasy. Jang added that these young men are serving as spies at a time in their lives when they are young and beautiful, which is why he recruited a handsome cast to play the roles.

Towards the end of his Q&A session, Jang said that “[These days], the relationship between North Korea and South Korea has become a bit more hostile.” He added that the political situation does “influence the films that are being made in South Korea.”

Movies like “Secretly, Greatly” may be a reflection of the present–and a way to shape the future.

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.